Hey, guys. New to the forum and new to the lab owning, so pardon me if some questions were asked already. I have a 21 weeks old chocolate lab, who's been with me for the past 8 weeks or so. We took him in from a store, not from a kennel or breeder directly. When we took him in, he was an uncontrollable chewer, whenever he would left alone or even with someone in the room. He tore down all his bedding, he tore down my mattress, my pillow (which he managed to get out of the closet), chewed off a couple of handles from the drawer, etc. I have pretty big house, and I cannot run after him all day to supervise, that is why for about 6 weeks out of 8, he spent in one room, only being taken through the rest of the house on the leash. We did it daily, at least once a day, walking through all the rooms. Recently, we decided that it is time to give him more space, so I closed off hallway with baby gates and closed most of the doors, allowing him access to his room, my office and hallway, connecting them. Before I get to the question, let me tell a little about house training. First 4 weeks, I've allowed him to pee on a training pad, and he almost would never had any accidents since day one. Once he outgrew it (he would literally put his front paws on the pad and pee on the floor ), I've started house breaking. We had an issue or two (once we forgot to remove the water and he peed in the middle of the night and once I was playing with him for about 45 minutes and in the middle of the play he just weed on the floor, from over-excitement I guess). Now I do take him out every 2 hours or so (or whenever he starts squeaking loudly) and he never pees in his room. Also at night he holds off for a good 8 hours every single night. So, back to the question. Once I've allowed him to freely travel between two rooms, everything was ok for a first few days. But later he started to pee in the hallway. He is not asking to go outside or does not show any other signs. He just leaves the room as if he is going for a toy or water, and pees a little in the hall. Moreover, if I immediately take him outside, he pees as usual. First time, I thought I was too busy with work and just missed the timing he was waiting too long. But the second time, I literally took him out 30 minutes before the incident. And the amount he peed in the hallway was like 20% of what he them peed outside. What can be the reason for that? Should I cut down space or free time for now? Or is he trying to mark the territory? The problem is that I cannot sit with him all day in the room, cause I have to work and I cannot let him out, cause he then pees on the floor. I want him to spend time with me, cause I know that lab needs company more than other dogs. But I cannot carry his toys, water and kennel between rooms 10 times a day and I cannot leave hallway open for him just yet. So any advice on that - would be really helpful. Now, to the second question. We finally have some good weather, so I've started to take him for a long walks around the neighborhood (about 2-3 miles every day). He is having a lot of fun on them, sniffing everything, meeting people, cars, other dogs. The problem is that on one hand I do not want him to lead me on the leash, on the other - I do not want to take away his "getting to know world experience". So I'm having a little trouble managing between two approaches. He now knows "Heel" command, and can manage going for about 100 steps before getting tired of that and running away from me. Also he knows "Slow down", when he is about to stretch the leash, so he slows down and allows me to catch up with him. So our walk is something like - he runs away for 15 feet, sniffs everything, I catch up, repeat. Whenever car, person or dog shows up near, I give him heel command and fix the leash shorter, give him treat is he follows. And once in a while (every 3-5 minutes of the walk) I just tell him to heel, we walk 50-100 steps and he gets a treat if he follows. Is that correct approach or I can do something better? Thanks everyone in advance and happy to join the community
Welcome to you. Here is a good place for all your potty training questions - https://www.thelabradorsite.com/house-training-your-labrador-puppy/ I would go for much shorter walks and train for shorter periods, he’s still very young. This is worth reading too - https://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppy-exercise-how-much-is-too-much/ .
